Toleware treasures in Apple Tree’s spring antiques auction

NEWARK, Ohio – With nearly every possible nook and cranny of their new 44,000-square-foot building packed with antiques and collectibles, Apple Tree Auction is ready to sell more than 5,000 lots in three days. Apple Tree Auction’s Antiques, Fine Art, & Decorative Arts Auction, scheduled for May 13-15, runs the gamut from desirable painted-tin wares to a 19th-century tapestry; from collectible lamps and paintings to a collection of vintage santos figures.

Among the lots that will be auctioned during Apple Tree’s three-day auction are more than 100 pieces of toleware. The highly collectible painted-tin objects, which include document boxes, coffee pots, candle lamps, trays and tea canisters, come from a Columbus, Ohio, estate, and will be auctioned during the Friday, May 14 session.

“The quality of the decoration on the toleware, as well as the sheer number of pieces, is impressive,” said David Schnaidt, vice president of Apple Tree Auction. “The document boxes are the most common, but they’re also desirable because people love painted boxes. Normally you might see a half-dozen pieces of toleware in an auction; we have a sizable selection of more than 100 lots of toleware to offer bidders.”

The Friday auction will also include hundreds of pieces of collectibleOhio Valley regional glassware, including Fostoria, Heisey and Cambridge. The furniture auctioned on Friday includes everything from European furniture to primitives, including cobalt-decorated stoneware, a salesman’s sample Dazey churn, over 30 wooden duck decoys, and at least 20 spinning wheels.

On Saturday, bidders will be vying for several collectible table lamps, including a 16-inch Pairpoint reverse-painted lamp with a red/green ornate pattern on the shade, an 18-inch Lamb Brothers leaded-glass table lamp with red-bloomed petals, and a Handel banker’s desk lamp. Other decorative arts include Victorian lighting, an Edison cylinder phonograph, diamond jewelry and watches; and collectible Royal Doulton and Hummel figurines.

Decorative arts will capture plenty of attention on Saturday. Among the top paintings and tapestries up for bid are a 9-foot by 12-foot 19th-century tapestry believed to be of Flemish origin. The tapestry features a hunter standing in the woods, his hunting dogs surrounding a captured rabbit. Also available is a 27-inch by 22-inch painting of a tavern scene, painted in the 19th century in the Flemish-school style. Garden antiques include a late-19th-century bronze fountain, measuring 44 inches tall and featuring the figure of a boy surrounded by frogs and holding shells in his hands.

Collectors will also have their pick of a fine selection of carved-wood figures of saints, known as “santos.” Religious figures of this type were brought to America by Spanish colonists and settlers, and became part of Hispanic-American culture. Like the toleware, the dozens of santos figures in the Apple Tree auction came from a local collection. “The santos are all originals and display a variety of individual artistic techniques in their polychrome decoration,” said Schnaidt.

The Apple Tree Auction may not have the kitchen sink, but it has nearly everything else up for bid – including a 21-inch tortoise shell. Not tortoise shell jewelry – an actual tortoise shell. “The story behind this shell,” said Sam Schnaidt, president of Apple Tree Auction, “was that the people who owned the shell read recently that a similar shell had sold for thousands of dollars in New York, and so they consigned it to our auction.”

The Saturday auction will also include a fleet of collectible cars, including a 1962 Buick hardtop and a 1975 Mercedes 280D. And if you need to haul away all your winning lots, there is a 39-foot camping trailer also available for bid.

In order to get through 5,000 lots in three days, Apple Tree Auction will set up two bidding rings in their newly built gallery. Bidding is available in person in Apple Tree Auction’s Newark, Ohio, gallery, as well as online through Artfact. For additional information on any of the 5,000 lots available, call Sam Schnaidt at 740-334-4282 or e-mail sam@appletreeauction.com. Visit the company’s website at www.appletreeauction.com.